narkably unequal, and the shell is occasionally crumpled 
as though the animal had received some injury to the 
mantle during the making of the shell. It is found among 
rocks and loose boulders, or on the roots of seaweed and 
sponges, attached by a byssus. 
Throughout New Zealand; Mount Maunganui; Chat- 
ham Islands. 
LIMA BULLATA (lima, a file; bullata, inflated, 
bubble-like).—A rare bivalve of very elegant shape, almost 
symmetrical, and having the valves of equal size. It attains 
a diameter of one and a-half inches from the hinge to the 
ventral margin, and is about three-quarters of an inch 
across. It is widest about the middle, as well as being 
thicker through from valve to valve, and tapers gracefully 
upwards towards the hinge and downwards to the rounded 
ventral margin. The beaks are high and narrow, with an 
ear extending in almost a straight line outwards on either 
side. The sculpture consists of numerous radiate ribs, 
well marked over the middle portion of the shell, and 
absent on the sides. There are also fine concentric growth 
lines. The radiate ribs are visible on the inside, and the 
margins are lightly toothed. The Lima bullata is pure 
white. 
Cape Maria van Diemen; Bay of Islands; Mount 
Maunganui; Stewart Island; Chatham Islands; The 
Snares. 
LIMA LIMA (lima, a file) —This bivalve is commonly 
known as the File shell, and is rather like a scallop. It is 
a pale whitish-yellow colour, sculptured with eighteen stout 
rounded scaly ribs, which are of a honey colour, and trans- 
lucent. The valves are not symmetrical, being rounded in 
outline at the posterior end, and straight at the anterior end, 
as though a fan-shaped section, one-sixth of the entire 
shell, had been cut off. The interior is pure white, and 
shining; the external ribs showing as well-defined grooves. 
The ventral margins are toothed by the ends of the ribs, 
these teeth interlocking with each other after the fashion 
of the cockles. About two inches in its longest diameter, 
which is from the hinge to the ventral border. It is a rare 
ies and occurs only in the South Island and Stewart 
sland. 
OSTREA ANGASI (ostrea, an oyster; Angas, the con- 
chologist).—This is the Stewart Island oyster, otherwise 
known as the mud oyster—an appropriate name, for the 
creature lives in mud, has a complexion suggestive of that 
93 
Plate [IX 
No. 15 
Plate XI 
No. 16 
Plate X 
No.5 
Sea Shells 
of New Zealand 
